If you follow me on Instagram (@_StarLitDay_) you’ll know that I’ve been posting a ton about the Montessori Equivalence Frames. This set of material introduces geometric concepts of congruence, similarity, and equivalence. It provides sensorial introductions to the Pythagorean Theorem, and also sensorial introduction to formulae for area of different shapes. It even introduces the concept of calculating to exhaustion – the precursor of calculus.
It’s a great material to have around, but SO expensive, especially for a homeschool environment where they may get used quite infrequently.
Well, now you have a choice! Create great quality frames in the comfort of your own home with your Cricut or other cutting machine! You can make the frames as you need them. I’ve made frames and insets from chipboard, cardstock, magnet, vinyl…you can see a pros/cons of some of the materials choices, along with their cut settings here.
Let’s take another look at the SVG files.
When you download your copy of my Montessori Equivalence Plates Cut Files, you’ll get a ZIP folder with 16 svg files. For those of you who have larger 12×18 cutting mats I’ve included all the traditionally sized frames. However for those of us who only have the 12×12 cutting mat, or don’t want to source material larger than 9×12 chipboard I have versions with a couple of modifications – let’s take a look at one.
Drawer 6 is named the “Euclid Frame.” While Pythagoras defined his theorem, it took Euclid to come along and give the proof. On the top you can see the original layout green frame. This frame is 44cm/17in across, and I didn’t want to source materials that large – or even store some thing that large, so I created the bottom option: two frames that each fit easily on a 9″x12″ sheet of chipboard – or and 8″x10″magnet sheet. Here’s a comparison of a magnet Pythagoras Frame next to a chipboard/cardstock Euclid frame:
chipboard 
magnet
Here’s a look at everything included in the download:
And here’s a better look at the frames files that have a traditional and an alternative version:
If you check out Instagram, I’ve got quite a few animations and videos of the frames in action. Check them out – and then pay a visit to the store to pick up your set of files!
